In this chapter we learn more about Venice, it's gondolas and it's art, "The Old Masters" and that of the Renaissance. Twain weighs in as an art critique. One area of particular interest to me is his revisiting the characteristics of what might be called the "Ugly American". "It is not pleasant to see an American thrusting his nationality forward obtrusively in a foreign land, but Oh, it is pitiable to see him making of himself a thing that is neither male nor female, neither fish, flesh, nor fowl--a poor, miserable, hermaphrodite Frenchman!"

Much like chapter 11, where we visit the dungeons of France, here we visit the chambers of the Council of Three and the Bridge of Sighs. Twain is not timid about demonstrating man's inhumanity to man. Again Mark Twain is disappointed to learn his preconceived ideas of Venice are not realized. Nighttime, however, returns some of the glamour he expected.

Twain travels from Lake Como to Venice. Along the way he hears the Legend of Count Luigi and his evil brother Leonardo. This is a live recording converted into a slide show with the open source program Imagination.

Twain travels from Milan to Lake Como. He stays in the small town of Bellagio, once the site of a Roman resort. He waxes poetic over the differences between Lake Tahoe and Lake Como but his bigotry in regards to Native Americans spoils the show. Included on this page is a copy of Letter 8 of Twain's offerings to the Daily Alta California, dated September 22, 1867. It was written in July of 1867. Most of the letter applies to this chapter but the paragraphs on The Last Supper were used in chapter 19.

An exploration of the art in Milan, Di Vinci, Michelangelo, etc. We also get a peek at Lucretia Borgia and Petrarch's Laura. The chapter contains Twain's reflections on Di Vinci's The Last Supper and comments on how the image is described by viewers. How is it possible to perceive the many nuances said to be found in the painting when it is in such a degraded condition.

The Last Supper was described by Twain in Letter number 8 to The Daily Alta California. This is only a small portion of the letter. I expect to include a copy of the letter with the Chapter 20 material.

This is a slideshow created with Imagination. The images are all from the Gutenberg Project edition with corresponds with the Oxford Mark Twain. Imagination allows the use of empty slides between images. I'm utilizing them here rather than filling the spaces with various Twain portraits.

Twain is enraptured by the Cathedral of Milan. This is another slideshow produced with Imagination. I have not solved the color problem yet and I hope to spend more time playing with the transitions between slides in future shows.

Mark Twain travels to Italy and first lands at Genoa. He's not impressed by the architecture but the women capture him. I'm trying a different slideshow program with this chapter, Imagination. It uses ffmpeg to render the slideshow and as with the other programs has problems with the color rendition of the pictures but it has a large number of transformation functions to choose from. Note the brown sky around the cathedral, the original photo has blue sky. Also, the faces in the painting of Le Moulin are blue tinged rather than flesh toned, as found in the painting.